In accordance with the present invention a novel enclosed pipette tip rack is provided.
Disposable pipette tips have often been packaged in supporting trays. Such disposable pipette tip trays function to organize and to aid the user of the same in the placement of the disposable pipette tip on a pipette. Prior pipette tip trays generally had an open bottom and top. For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,494,201 describes a tray or rack for disposable pipette tips and the system for use of the same.
Packages have also been devised to ship and store stackable pipette tip racks. Such packages are also intended to protect the disposable pipette tips held therewithin from any type of contamination or physical damage. For example reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,217, to Scordato, U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,322 to Cohen and French Pat. No. 1,475,924, in this regard.
Design U.S. Pat. No. Des. 271,239 issued to Lemieux et al describes an individual container and rack for pipette tips which does not include the provision for nesting a plurality of the same as is depicted in the prior art, e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,271 to Scorado et al. Moreover, the container and rack for pipette tips shown in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 271,239 serves as a unitary package for disposable pipette tips and maybe autoclaved. During autoclaving the top of the container and rack may be tilted to allow circulation of ambient gases to the interior of the container as shown in a brochure issued by the assignee of U.S. Pat. No. Des. 271,239. Open racks of the prior art are often autoclaved in cardboard boxes or metal foil containers hand fashioned for that purpose.
These prior disposable pipette tips racks and containers and the techniques employed for autoclaving the same involve undesirable aspects. For example, the method of tilting the cover on the container and rack shown in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 271,239 is unreliable since the top is difficult to balance in a tilted position and may shift from that position during an autoclaving process. In addition, the top must be repositioned after the autoclaving process to prevent contimation from dust, moisture, and other airborne contaminants. Using a secondary container for the autoclaving is cumbersome, expensive, and often results in contamination of the disposable pipette tip in the rack during the autoclaving process.
A disposable enclosed pipette tip rack which solves the problems encountered in the prior art, especially during the autoclaving process, would be a great advance in the scientific and medical field.